We must pursue drought responses that help local communities eliminate water waste and develop sustainable water supplies, and increase the efficiency of agricultural water use, while sustaining wildlife that depends on fresh water in streams and rivers.

This drought’s impacts are more intense because of unsustainable water management practices and outdated policies that have left us more vulnerable to extreme weather:

Damming of rivers and diversions of fresh water flows that salmon and other fish need to survive.

Artificially low water prices that subsidize waste and inefficiency, especially by agricultural users

Overpumping of groundwater without regulations – so much so that whole portions of the state are rapidly sinking

Relying on Sierra snowpack for water storage, even as climate change reduces snowfall

Moving water by pumps and aqueducts from one part of the state to another for agricultural use -- water pumping consumes more electricity than any other activity in California

The likely landscape for the coming decades includes longer droughts and more extreme storms that will bring more frequent flooding to Bay Area streams and shoreline communities, and threaten the economy. These greater extremes and variability in weather will causes sudden and severe shocks to the Bay’s ecology and wildlife, and increased threats to people.

WHAT WE CAN DO

There are actions each of us should take right now to use water wisely and save it for essential needs: